This week on GMA3: What You Need to Know, three Latina-owned businesses pitched to Latina model and entrepreneur Alexandra Cristin, founder of Glam Seamless, for a chance to win money in the show’s Pitch Payday Challenge. Today, all three brands, including Yo Soy AfroLatina, found out that their businesses will be $5,000 closer to realizing their dreams.
Yo Soy AfroL
atina was founded by Bianca Kea—who, as a Black American and a Mexican American, considers herself “a fusion of two really dope cultures”—with a mission to empower Black women within the Latin community. Its branded merchandise includes T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and totes with sayings such as “Not All Latinas Look the Same” and “Not Your Nena, Shawty, Mami, Baby, Princesa.”“As a little girl growing up in Detroit, encountering an Afro-Latino was rare. There was little to no Latino representation in the Midwest, leading me to rely on mainstream media for a portrayal of my community,” she writes on her website.
“When I began taking trips to the tierra of Mexico 10 years ago, I remember feeling overjoyed at the sight of people who looked like me. I felt seen. I felt recognized. From then on, a hunger to educate myself on the Black diaspora within the Latin American community grew exponentially.”
According to GMA, Kea left her 9-to-5 in advertising to start her side hustle.
“I wanted to create a business and a product that I personally love and that I knew that I could wear on a daily basis, so something that was bold and empowering but cute,” she said in her pitch package
.“I want to expand Yo Soy AfroLatina into an empire. And I also want to have an impact on my communities by empowering them to really embrace their identities and walk in their truth.”
Kea said she will use the money to diversify the brand’s product portfolio, improve quality, bring production in house, and build out her team of Black and brown creatives.